One Democrat -- Anthony Weiner -- has been in the news lately for trying to turn parts of his life into a porn fantasy. But a large portion of an entire party -- the GOP -- has been living out a different kind of delusional fantasy that's steeped in unrealistic sexual and romantic narratives.
What I'm trying to say is that the GOP, more or more, seems like an adolescent girl with a reliable straight-arrow boyfriend who's willing to marry her and who'd provide a good life for her -- but she doesn't find that satisfying. It's just too boring. So our GOP Girl spends her time constantly looking for ways to dump Mr. Dull and run off with someone who's, well, bad. Never mind the fact that that would be disastrous for GOP Girl.
Take a look at the results of the latest ABC/Washington Post poll:
... [Mitt] Romney appears formidable: In a general-election trial heat in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll he runs evenly with Barack Obama among all Americans, and numerically outpoints him, 49-46 percent, among registered voters -- not a statistically significant lead, given sampling error, but a clear reflection of Obama's vulnerability to a well-positioned challenger.
Romney, though, is the only Republican to run that well; Obama leads all other potential opponents tested in this poll -- Palin, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman. Palin fares worst, trailing Obama by 17 points among all adults, 15 points among registered voters.
Imagine the good angel on GOP Girl's shoulder telling her, "Stick with Romney." The problem is, the bad angel on the other shoulder is telling GOP Girl to dump Romney and go off with, well, maybe some James Dean figure on a motorcycle -- perhaps literally.
The reality is that many GOP voters probably would be content with Romney -- and if the economy remains awful (as it surely will), he could beat Obama. But GOP Girl has fallen in with a bad crowd. FreedomWorks doesn't like Romney. Other influential teabaggers don't like Romney. Romney is actually beating Obama according to one measure of the electorate in this poll and yet the poll results are barely mentioned on the Fox Nation homepage -- and Romney's name isn't mentioned at all (we do, however, get a mention by name of teabag hero Allen West and his thoughts on Weinergate), while the main Fox News homepage mentions the Romney poll only in tiny agate type, as the third-listed story under "Politics." And if you go to the Fox News Politics page, the poll isn't mentioned at all.
I know I keep saying this, but I think it bears repeating: if Roger Ailes is so desperate to find an electable Republican presidential candidate, why doesn't he just embrace the one he's already got? Why not try to turn Romney into a wingnut hero?
Answer: He's just not sexy enough. He's not bad.
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